One Wrong Step
by Robotics-girl19
Summary: Claudia falls in the warehouse and hits her head. She tries to hide the pain from Artie, Myka and Pete, but how do they react when they find out?
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own this...**

_**One wrong step**_

_**Claudia falls in the warehouse and hits her head. She tries to hide the pain from Artie, Myka and Pete, but when she collapses, they come to her aid, as any family would.**_

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><p>"Just a little higher," Claudia muttered as she stretched her hand upwards to where her Farnsworth was sitting on the shelf. She had been doing inventory of the upper shelves and had set her Farnsworth on the shelf above her. She had forgotten about it when she moved the ladder a few feet to the left, and she didn't see the point of climbing all the way down, moving the ladder two feet to the right, and climbing back up fifteen feet. She was so close, if only she was a little taller. She lifted up her back foot and leaned forward slightly. Just as her fingers brushed the Farnsworth, she lost her balance and slipped off the ladder. She let out a scream as she fell forwards against the shelves. Claudia tried to stop her fall by grabbing something, anything, but she only succeeded in hitting her shoulder against the edge of one of the shelves.<p>

She hit the ground on her back with a thud, effectively cracking her head on the ground and knocking all the air out of her lungs. She curled in on herself, trying desperately to breathe and bring the world back into focus. Finally, she was able to drag in a breath. Although she couldn't make the world stop spinning, she sat up and leaned against the shelf. _That hurt_, she thought as she moved a hand up to the back of her head. There was a big bump that was already forming. She'd be fine. It wasn't that bad. She looked up slowly to see her Farnsworth still sitting at the top on the shelf. She groaned and stood up shakily. _Artie is going to ground me for sure,_ she thought when she realized that there was no way she could climb back up the ladder to retrieve it. _Well, I should probably finish inventory then get back and tell Artie where the Farnsworth is._

She used the shelves for support as she made her way down the aisle. She only had two things left that she had to check, so she could go find Artie soon. And then she could get grounded. Great. The world was still spinning and now her head was pounding with each heartbeat. She stumbled unexpectedly and fell to the ground again. This didn't help her head at all, or her now bruised hands. She moaned again. _Come on, Claudia, get this under control. You are fine; this is nothing anybody else should have to know about._ With that, she dragged herself to her feet again, and after checking the final two artifacts, she staggered down the aisles and up the stairs to Artie's office.

Before entering the room, she brushed her hair back, stood up straighter, and made sure it looked like she was fine before walking in. "Hey Artie," she said.

"Are you all done with the inventory?" He asked without looking up from his computer.

"Yeah," she replied. She was getting dizzy again and reached for the table for support. Artie looked up at her.

"Is everything okay Claudia?" he asked slowly.

She started to nod, but then stopped and said, "Yeah, of course!"

"Alright," he said slowly. Claudia wasn't sure if he believed her or not, but the world was starting to get blurry and her head was pounding even more. "Pete and Myka are waiting for you in the car so they can go for lunch. When you get back you can check out what's wrong with the electrical system. It's causing problems again."

"'Kay, see you later." She walked as confidently as she could across the office and into the tunnel where she immediately sat down and put her head on her knees. She felt so sick. Her head was pounding, she was starting to get nauseous, and blackness was approaching at the edge of her vision. Maybe she should tell Artie. On the other hand, he was obviously busy and she didn't want to bug him. She had taken care of herself for years. There was no reason to inconvenience someone else. She sat there for awhile, but then she heard the door at the end of the tunnel click. Someone was coming in. It was probably Pete coming to find her because he was hungry. Knowing she wouldn't be able to stand up soon enough, she rolled onto her hands and knees and pretended to be looking for something. Sure enough, Pete walked through the door the next moment.

"Claudia, what are you doing?"

"Um, looking for my hair clip," she made up quickly. "Here it is!" she pretended to put it in her pocket. Now how to get up without arising suspicion? "Care to be a gentleman and help a girl up?" For a moment, she worried that he would think something was up, but after a pause, he crossed the tunnel and helped lift her up. She let go of him as soon as she knew she wouldn't fall over again, but he still gave her a weird look. "I'm fine," she assured before he could say anything. "Let's go." She walked passed him. He followed her out to the car where Myka was waiting. She slid into the back seat while Pete got in the passenger seat. Myka always drove.

Claudia buckled her seatbelt and leaned her head forward against the back of Pete's seat. Neither Pete nor Myka noticed as they were deep in conversation about their latest artifact find. Claudia closed her eyes and wanted nothing more than to disappear. She thought about telling them, but then she remembered that last time she told someone she was sick, she ended up being abandoned by her boyfriend while he went out with another girl. Alright, so telling someone that she was she wasn't feeling so great wasn't an option. She wasn't sure what Pete and Myka would do, but she knew it wouldn't be good. She would probably end up alone again.

They got to the town after a half hour and by that time, Claudia was feeling a little bit better. She hadn't budged since she got in the car, but when she finally looked out the window, she was happily surprised to find that everything was mostly in focus and nothing was spinning. "Ready to go Claud?" Myka asked, finally looking back.

"Yeah," Claudia said, forcing a smile. They all got out of the car and walked into the little café. Pete ordered a stack of pancakes, Myka got a salad, but Claudia didn't get anything. "I actually ate a late, big breakfast," she told them. This was a complete lie, as Claudia hadn't eaten anything that day, but at this point she felt so sick that she didn't think she could eat anything. She didn't say much during the meal, but Pete was happy to tell her all about their latest mission. Claudia zoned out halfway through his story as she tried to stop the headache. It would be okay though, she would get back and take a nap and when she woke up, everything would be fine.

Finally the meal ended and they got up to walk back to the car. Claudia gripped the table tightly until she got her balance. Pete gave her a weird look, but didn't say anything. They walked to the car, Pete still chattering away as he got in the passenger seat. Right before Claudia got in, Myka put a hand on her shoulder. "Claudia, is something wrong? You've been really quiet all day."

"Yeah, I'm great," Claudia assured weakly. She put on a smile. "Just a little tired I guess." With that she turned away and slid into the car. Myka didn't totally seem to believe her, but she didn't argue. Myka got in and started the car. Claudia closed her eyes again and leaned against the side of the car. She could faintly hear Pete and Myka muttering something to each other. Probably about her, but the gently vibrations of the car were lulling her to sleep. For a moment she thought that she shouldn't sleep, but she couldn't figure out why, so she let the darkness surround her.

The next thing she knew, Pete was calling her name and shaking her lightly. "Claudia, wakey wakey. Rise and shine," he said excitedly. Her eyes fluttered open, but then closed tightly again when her headache reared its ugly head again. "Good morning!" He crowed. He was so _loud_. "Come on, Artie wants us." She sighed and dragged herself out of the car. Myka had already entered the warehouse. She followed Pete slowly, hanging onto the car for as long as possible. Pete glanced back again and stopped walking. "You okay?" She groaned. She had to get better at hiding things.

"Yeah, great." Claudia stumbled when she let go of the car. Pete caught her and supported her. "Okay, maybe not."

"What's up Claud?" he asked as they started walking towards the warehouse. She didn't respond. She was too busy trying to stay upright. He kept his arm wrapped around her tightly, making sure she wouldn't stumble again. He opened the door carefully and led her inside the tunnel. Right before they opened the door to Artie's office, Claudia pulled away from Pete. "Are you sure?" She nodded weakly.

"Please don't tell anyone," she pleaded. "I just have a headache." Before he could respond, she pulled the door open and went inside.

"Oh, good you're here," Artie said immediately. "I need you to do a little more inventory, then fix the electrical system, and track a new artifact." He continued giving her details, but suddenly Myka walked in and started talking with Pete too. An artifact alarm started going off, and normally this wouldn't faze Claudia, but this was the final straw. Everything was too overwhelming. Her headache was getting worse with each throb and blackness was starting to creep in at the edge of her vision. The world gave a sudden jerk and Claudia staggered forward and clutched the desk. Everyone grew quiet and stared at her. "Claudia?" Artie asked softly. She tried to answer, but before she could, the blackness took over and Claudia sank to the ground, unconscious.

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><p><strong>Oh no! Is she going to be okay? <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Aww, poor Claudia! I hope she's okay! Well, I guess we'll find out...**

**Also, thanks to Kat Bee Dee's review, I have tried elaborate on Claudia's boyfriend situation. I realized after posting chapter 1 that her reasoning was a little weak, so I added to this chapter a bit to make it make more sense. I hope it meets all of your expectations!**

**I don't own this...**

_**O**__**ne wrong step**_

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><p>Consciousness came back slowly to Claudia. She was too exhausted to open her eyes, but she could hear voices swirling around her. <em>Claudia? Claudia!<em> She felt pressure on her arm. Someone else called her name, and then said something to someone else. This voice sounded more feminine though. Who did that voice belong to? She felt like she should recognize it.

_What's wrong…her…okay?_ Claudia couldn't make sense of what was going on. All she knew was that her head was throbbing, and she felt like she was spinning rapidly. _Should...her… couch?_

Something grabbed her legs, and she felt pressure under her back before Claudia felt herself being lifted. Even through the haze, every survival instinct kicked in and she started thrashing. No one was allowed to touch her when she didn't know what was going on. The people started yelling and Claudia slipped out of their grasp and hit the ground only fell about a foot, but it intensified her headache more.

The impact just sent Claudia into even more of a panic and she let out a scream as she continued to flail frantically. Her right foot connected with something hard before hands locked around her arms and legs, holding her down. More voices echoed in the room. Two hands clamped down on either side of her head. Her eyes shot open, but everything was too blurry for her to see anything.

"Claudia!" There was a man above her, she realized as her vision cleared some. He had a beard and looked older, kind of like someone she knew.

"Claudia, calm down." The man ordered. Something about his voice made her relax slightly. She stopped fighting and looked at him. Yes, she definitely knew this man. Finally, recognition dawned on her.

"A—Artie?" she asked shakily. He smiled.

"Yes, Claudia, I'm here. You're going to be alright." Claudia looked down to see Myka holding her arms and Pete was weighing down her legs.

"Hey Claud," they said in unison. Neither one of them let go of her yet. She closed her eyes again, comforted by the calming presence of her friends. "Claudia?" Myka asked her gently. She forced her eyes open and looked in Myka's direction. "We want to move you to the couch. Is that okay?"

Claudia tried to speak, but she had to try twice more before any intelligible words came out. "Yeah, sure," was all she could come up with. They lifted her gently to the couch and she sank down into the cushions. Myka sat down by her feet and Artie pulled up a chair; Pete stayed standing.

"So, Claudia," Myka started softly. "What happened? Are you okay?" Claudia glanced around at them. Myka looked worried, Pete seemed to be wearing a hard mask that showed now expression at all, and Artie… Artie had an expression that she couldn't quite place. It looked almost like fatherly concern, maybe anxiety? Was that fear? That alarmed Claudia more than anything else.

"Artie?" Claudia whimpered. "Am I going to be okay?" She was suddenly so scared. Her friends were tense, and she could feel it. It wasn't helping. She pushed herself up on her elbows. Artie put his hand on her shoulder and forced her to lie back down.

"You're going to be fine Sweetie," he said. "Do you know what caused this? Was it an artifact?" He looked her over carefully, not seeing any new artifact that might have caused the collapse. Claudia lifted her hand to her head as her headache started pounding again. "Did you hit your head?" Claudia blushed when she remembered the simple thing that had caused so much trouble.

"Yeah," she said shyly. "I had put my Farnsworth up on one of the shelves during inventory and then moved the ladder. I slipped while trying to reach it." She stopped when she realized that she was getting some horrified looks from all three of them.

"How far did you fall?" Myka whispered.

"Fifteen feet." Claudia looked only at Pete, who was the calmest of the three, even if it was only an act. "I hit my head when I fell. It really hurts." She rubbed the back of head with her hand. No one spoke for a moment. Finally Artie broke the silence.

"Do you know if you got a concussion?" Claudia shook her head and propped herself up on her elbows so she could see them all better. "Have you been dizzy or extra tired since then?"

"Yeah, I took a nice nap on the way back from lunch though." She smiled at this, but then stopped when she saw Artie's expression. _Oh yeah, it's not good to sleep with a concussion, is it?_

"And you've had a headache for awhile?" Artie questioned. She nodded again. "Do you remember everything okay?"

"I think so…" Claudia said slowly. "I don't totally know what happened on the way to lunch…or during lunch…or after lunch…" she trailed off. "Okay, maybe not. You were telling me to do something, right? You had some chores for me." Artie waved his hand dismissingly.

"That doesn't matter now. You don't remember anything for the last two hours though?"

"Not really. I know Pete, Myka and I went out. I'm pretty sure Pete got pancakes. I don't remember what we talked about though." Artie looked down at the ground as he thought about what to do. Just then, Claudia's headache came roaring back and she moaned quietly and grabbed her head. She started slipping sideways but Artie put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "I'm good," she said when the headache subsided.

"No you're not, Claudia," Artie said seriously. "We're taking you to the hospital."

With that, he stood up and started gathering things for the trip. The nearest hospital that would be able to handle her injury was an hour and a half away. Pete and Myka helped Claudia up and Myka went to help Artie while Pete led Claudia to the car. She stumbled once and after that he kept his arm wrapped tightly around her. He helped her into the back seat and slid in beside her. After a few minutes, Artie got in the driver's seat and then Myka came out with some sandwiches for later. She handed Pete a blanket and a pillow for Claudia. Artie started the car and they were soon speeding down the interstate. They rode in silence for the first ten minutes, but then Pete noticed that Claudia was having trouble staying awake.

"Claudia," he called gently while he poked her nose with his finger. "You gotta stay awake. No sleeping." She batted his hand away with her own.

"But I'm so warm," she whined. "So sleepy," she yawned. Pete poked her forehead harder.

"Time to wake up darlin'," she opened her eyes and glared at him. "Sorry, Claud," he apologized. "Just gotta keep you conscious." She shook her head and pulled the blanket up to hide her face.

"Too sleepy." Pete was starting to worry more that she was going to slip back into unconsciousness. He tugged the blanket back down and leaned in really close, so their noses were almost touching. When she opened her eyes again, she jumped when she saw how close he was. He laughed and pulled back as she stared at him with wide eyes.

"Still sleepy?" he asked smugly. Claudia shook her head. "Well, now that you're awake, talk to me."

"About what?"

"Well, how are you feeling?"

"Head hurts, kinda dizzy. Feeling wimpy overall." She shrugged and smiled. "As long as I don't have to be intelligent though, I'll be fine." She looked at him again and could tell another, more serious question was coming. He sighed. Not a good sign.

"Why didn't you tell us you were hurt?" he asked quietly. She knew this was coming. And she still hadn't come up with a reason that would make sense to them. Well, she had to try to explain, didn't she?

"I was worried," she started saying, then stopped and tried again. "I thought…" She saw Myka looking at her through the mirror. "Last time I told someone I was sick, they left me. I didn't tell you guys, because I was worried you would abandon me just like Justin did."

"Justin was…?" Myka asked slowly.

"My boyfriend. I told him I was sick and then he left to go out with another girl." Claudia took a shaky breath and forced the tears away. Now was not the time to cry. "I was worried that it would happen again."

"There's got to be more to it, right?" Myka asked her, not fully believing a boyfriend could cause so much distrust. Part of Claudia knew that they would catch on, but she had still hoped that they wouldn't.

"Yeah," she sighed. "When he cheated on me, he was the only person I had left. My parents were gone, Joshua had disappeared. I had just gotten out of the psych ward. I relied on him for basically everything. I was living out of a tiny apartment in a bad part of town. He paid for half of my meals and was always there for me. As long as I wasn't there to catch him cheating, apparently. I felt bad about being a burden, but I had just gotten a job and was starting to make some money so he wouldn't have to take care of me all the time. He was the only person left in the world who cared for me, but even that was a lie." She blinked her eyes rapidly to push back the tears that were quickly forming. "I didn't want to take the chance that the same thing would happen this time. I figured if nothing was wrong, things wouldn't fall apart..."

She glanced up shyly at them to see Myka shaking her head, but Pete was just staring at the floor of the car. Even Artie had frozen. She waited for their response. Finally Pete spoke.

"Is that what you think of us Claudia? Do you really think that we would desert you when we found out you needed help?" He looked at her with pain filled eyes. She could see Myka had tears in her eyes as well.

"Well, I didn't think Justin would leave either though. All my life, people have left me. People I thought would always be there. I've been taught to look out for myself, because I'm the only person I can trust not to leave me." She was escalating now. "I love you guys. I really do. You are the only real family I've ever had. But there is no guarantee that you won't have to leave someday. At any time, the government guys could reassign you to somewhere in Europe, or Asia, or Australia. You can't control that!" She finally ran out of words and broke down in tears. Pete wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. Myka turned around in the front seat and grabbed her hand.

"You're right Claudia," Myka said through her own tears. "We might get reassigned. But think about it. For my first two months here, I did everything I could to get out of here, and nothing happened. So if I say that I want to stay at the warehouse, there is a very small chance that I will ever leave." Then Myka also added, "Plus, if they do ever try to move us, I will fight it. I will never leave you because I got reassigned." Claudia smiled at her gratefully.

"Yeah," Pete said with a laugh. "I'm sure one of these artifacts can erase memories. We'll just grab it and fly down to Washington and use it to make them forget they ever tried to reassign us." Claudia started laughing too. "You won't stop us, will you Artie?"

"Of course not," Artie said. "I would help with that plan. By the way, the artifact you want is Mesmer's watch. If you swing it three times in front of the person, they will be under your complete control."

"Thanks, Artie," Claudia and Pete said in unison.

"We love you Claud," Myka said, "and we will do whatever we possibly can to never ever leave you."

"Love you guys too," Claudia said happily. She hugged Pete and then leaned back on her pillow. Breaking the tension, she then asked, "So now that we've had this very touching conversation, can I take a nap, or do I still have to stay awake?"

"Still have to stay awake. We have just under an hour left," Pete said, then checking the speedometer, he corrected his estimation. "We have just under a half hour left, but you have to stay awake until the doc says you're cleared to sleep. Until then, let's play a game. I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100." Claudia sighed happily. Really? They were going to play this game?

"11." Pete's grin vanished and his jaw dropped.

"How do you do that?" he asked her, awestruck. Claudia laughed at him.

"You have a tell," she explained. "I knew it was in the teens, plus you like low numbers and especially prime numbers. It's not that hard." Pete still couldn't believe it. He turned to Myka, who was laughing at him.

"How does she always do that? She's got a concussion and she still wins on her first try!" He ranted for awhile and they ended up playing that game and games like it for the next half hour. She won almost every time and eventually she forced Pete to declare that she was the Queen of the number game. By the time they got to the hospital, they could already tell that she would be okay, but they still wanted to be sure.

Claudia looked around as Pete led her into the building while Artie went ahead to check her in and Myka brought in the supplies she had gathered earlier. All of them had come, she realized suddenly. Only one person had actually _needed_ to drive her, but all of them were here, driving two and a half hours round trip just to make sure she was okay. If they were willing to do all this for her, there was no way they were leaving anytime soon. She was suddenly very relieved. For the first time, she was in a safe place where people truly cared about her. She had found a home.

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><p><strong>I knew she would be fine all along! Did you? Tell me everything! Just hit the little review button. You know where it is!<strong>


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